GRAND RAPIDS -- Three men who claim they were detained and assaulted by the owner and employees of a Kalamazoo scrap yard in 2006 have sued in federal court alleging their civil rights were violated.

Jose Guadalupe Prieto, Adan Juarez and Eduardo Romero were captured, tortured and bound by Kalamazoo Metal Recyclers Inc. owner Patrick Farrell Sr. and employees Patrick Farrell Jr., William Farrell, Darrell D. Phillips and Gordon Henderson after being summoned Aug. 14, 2006, to Mayor's Riverfront Park to help family and friends "who they believed had been victims of a random assault," according to a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.

The three men were hit with metal pipes, kicked, stripped of their shoes and cellular phones and subjected to racial slurs and threats against their families "for an extended period of time," despite their requests that police be called, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit alleges ethnic intimidation and violation of the plantiffs' civil rights and seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages from KMR, the Farrells, Henderson and Phillips.

According to the lawsuit, KMR, 1525 King Highway, had experienced scrap-metal thefts prior to the incident, including early on the morning of Aug. 14, according to the suit. At about 5 a.m., Patrick Farrell Sr. spotted aluminum manifold blocks that had been taken from the yard and thrown down an embankment.

Farrell and his two sons, Henderson and Phillips, "conspired to hide and wait in bushes" nearby to try to catch whoever returned for the scrap metal, the suit said. At about 9 a.m., the KMR group spotted four people approaching and captured two Hispanic men who they bound, beat and threatened with a revolver, the complaint alleges.

The two men were forced to use their cell phones to "summon other individuals," who included the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the complaint alleges.

In February, Patrick Farrell Sr., William Farrell, Henderson and Phillips each pleaded no contest in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit a legal act in an illegal manner. Under a plea agreement, their convictions will be reduced to misdemeanor assault and battery at a Nov. 24 sentencing if each man complies with stipulations of the agreement.

Charges against Patrick Farrell Jr. were dismissed by a judge in January.